All in a day's work

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from an attorney’s office, a regular daily occurrence. The secretary told me the office had a personal injury for me to serve on the at fault driver. Normal everyday stuff. With a quick look at my watch and calendar I said I would be by to pick up the paperwork before the end of the day.

On a normal business day I will leave my home office in the morning and stop at various law offices and other businesses on my way in to the county courthouse. At each stop along the way I am hoping to pick up some kind of work, a writing project, legal papers that need to be filed with the court or some other county office or some legal papers that need to be served on a person, business or government agency. Throughout the day as I go about the tasks that I have acquired I take phone calls regarding additional work, such as this particular phone call. If I don’t need to be out in the evening I will stop at law offices at the end of the day as I return to my home office and pick up new work and drop off completed projects.

So back to a couple of weeks ago. About 4:00 PM I showed up at Mike’s law office and after making some small talk with the receptionist I was handed a manila envelope with the papers I needed to "serve", deliver, to the named defendant. As has become my practice I opened the envelope just to check that I had all the necessary documents. More than once I have just read the letter of instructions and then later on found that I was missing some necessary documents, so I have tried to remind myself to look at the documents before I leave the office. Mike’s office has often done this to me, short me documents.

As I flipped through the documents I saw they were all there but, as I turned back to the instruction sheet I saw that it was missing an address for the person I was to serve. The receptionist must have been waiting for me to notice the deficiency because when I looked up she was shrugging, shrinking down in her seat. Before I could speak Mike appeared in the doorway. He must have been notified I was in the office. As I raised the paperwork, gesturing at Mike he spoke, "David, good to see you, thanks for serving this on the defendant. We haven’t been able to find a physical address for her," slight pause, "but I know that won’t be a problem for problem for you. You always get the job done." His smile got broader as he spoke.
Now I must admit that I am good ay my job. I have often used innovative means to serve people that don’t want to be served, but I don’t seek those kinds of assignments, they just seem to come. "Alright Mike," I began, "what information do you have?" I tried to keep my voice calm but the truth is, everything Mike and his partners asked me to do the last couple of months had required extra work, it was become a bit tiresome.

At my invitation Mike stepped forward, "David, we have the phone number, I believe it’s the home phone. We also know that she is the license holder for a bar, here’s the name of it. I thought with your resources and experience you could use that information to find this ‘lady’", he used his fingers to make quotation marks around the word "lady". "Once you have an address it should be easy to serve her, right?" That’s the way Mike sees it, I’m just delivering papers , an easy job.

After that explanation I knew exactly why Mike was talking to me and not one of his two partners. Mike is the normal one of the three, and I’m sure the other two know that I won’t get upset with Mike for such a load of crap. Looking over the paperwork again I asked Mike a few questions, made a few notes and left, continuing on my meandering path, from office to office, on my way home.

Mike is right, I do have experience and resources that I rely upon every day to accomplish my work as a process server. Still, the direct, low tech method is often the sufficient and that is where I start. While waiting in another office I pulled out my phone and called the number Mike had given me. Surprisingly it was still in service. More surprising was the fact that a woman answered the phone. I almost went comatose when I asked for the woman, let’s say "Mary" and the woman on the phone said she was "Mary".

It rarely was so easy, regaining my composure I identified myself as a process server and told "Mary" that I had some papers to deliver to her in person. I kept it vague as to what kind of papers, I wasn’t that surprised. "Mary" kept pushing so finally I just told her, "ma’am, they are papers related to a car accident last June." Now "Mary" took a deep breath. Not wanting to give her a chance to hang up I quickly asked her for her address, telling her that was the easiest way to get this done, I would drop by at a convenient time, I wouldn’t have to find her at work or somewhere else in public where she might be embarrassed. The truth is at her home made it easier for me.

"Mary’s" response was not surprising. "Why should I help you?" She yelled into to the phone. I should have realized it was a rhetorical question because before I could respond she yelled, "you just try to find me!" Not wanting her to have the last word, I practically yelled, "I will find you, and when I do you won’t be happy!" I don’t know how much of that she actually heard because the phone started beeping in my ear, call cut off almost before I got the last word out.

So, why am I writing about "Mary" today? I met "Mary", face to face, yesterday, shortly before dark. She wasn’t happy, in fact once she realized who I was and what I had just handed her, she started to yell a man’s name. Taking my cue, I quickly walked to my car, watching the doorway of "Mary’s" house over my shoulder so that I would know if I needed to run. As is my practice I had parked across the street and down two houses so I had my keys in my hand and the car unlocked several feet before I got there. Once in my car I drove out of the neighborhood, only stopping in the parking lot of the nearby shopping center after I made sure know one was following me.

As I made a few notes to help me complete the necessary "proof of service" along with a few notes for my file, I took a deep breath and laughed. Just another ordinary day process serving.